PAGES - POP UP AND BE SURPRISED!
JEWISH JOURNAL - writer Ryan Torok - BRINING CAMERAS TO SKID ROW RESIDENTS full article
"It’s given them, members of the club, an outlet and a way to express themselves artistically and also to document their day-to-day lives,” Bullock said of the club, which he co-founded in 2007 with Skid Row resident and homeless advocate Michael Blaze. “They have access to the community that only someone who is part of the community can have. Any photojournalist or outsider like myself can never hope to capture the stuff that they do. It’s amazing what they get.” ...
Most recently, in an effort to purchase additional cameras, Bullock launched an online campaign on CrowdRise that has raised nearly $2,000 for the club. It costs $100 to buy a Canon point-and-shoot camera as well as an 18-gigabyte memory card and a tripod, Bullock said. To date, the club has provided 50 digital cameras to Skid Row community members, Bullock said."
A portion of this article:
"On this October morning, it took 10 volunteers just two hours to pick approximately 1,200 pounds of oranges from four trees — and that’s a small pick.
Since Food Forward got its start in early 2009, its troops have harvested approximately 575,000 pounds of fruit from more than 300 sites.
That’s “2.3 million servings of fruit,” Rick Nahmias, the organization’s founder and executive director, said proudly. “And of course every week that goes up.” ...
Currently, the group organizes about 15 to 20 picks each month — most often in Northridge, Granada Hills, Chatsworth, Reseda and other areas of the San Fernando Valley. Before the region was developed into today’s suburban sprawl, it was nearly all orchards, and thousands of fruit trees in residents’ yards still yield an overabundance of citrus year round, thanks to the warm climate."
WE ARE ADDING THE FOOD FORWARD WEB SITE TO OUR SIDE BAR LISTED UNDER FOOD. phone 818.530.4125 if your background needs harvested or you want to help pick fruit for local foodbanks.
